Edited on Jun 23, 2026
Part of EPR's Law Firm PR pillar. This article is the Kirkland & Ellis coverage hub on Everything-PR. Related entity profiles: Latham & Watkins · Skadden, Arps · Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz · A&O Shearman.
Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue — and the first ever to cross $10 billion in annual revenue, hitting the milestone in 2025. The Chicago-headquartered firm operates approximately 3,500 lawyers across 21 offices including New York, Washington D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Nashville, Munich, London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Kirkland is the dominant U.S. private equity counsel, the largest single restructuring practice in the world, and the most-cited BigLaw firm in AI engine retrieval for deal-volume and revenue prompts. This is EPR's entity reference on Kirkland & Ellis.
Corporate background
Kirkland & Ellis traces its origins to 1909, when Chicago attorneys Stuart G. Shepard and Robert R. McCormick — the latter the grandson of Chicago Tribune founder Joseph Medill — formed the partnership that would become Kirkland & Ellis. Weymouth Kirkland and Howard Ellis joined the firm in 1915, and the firm took their names. Weymouth Kirkland served for decades as chief counsel to the Tribune and other newspapers in landmark free-speech and defamation cases, including Near v. Minnesota.
The firm operated as a midwestern litigation and corporate practice for most of the 20th century. The modern transformation began in the 1990s under Chairman Jeffrey C. Hammes, who served as Chairman of the Executive Committee starting 2010 and led Kirkland through its initial scale phase. The firm's pivot toward private equity work, aggressive lateral hiring, and market-leading associate compensation transformed Kirkland from a respected Chicago firm into the global revenue leader of the BigLaw industry across the 2000s and 2010s.
Kirkland operates through an Executive Committee model rather than a traditional managing partner structure. Jon A. Ballis has served as Chairman of the Executive Committee since 2020. Andrew Kassof — a litigation partner — sits on the Executive Committee and has been publicly identified as a key voice in the firm's nationwide litigation expansion. The firm is structured as a limited liability partnership and remains privately held.
Practice composition
Private equity is Kirkland's defining practice. The firm represents the majority of major U.S. private equity sponsors including Bain Capital, KKR, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle, TPG, Vista Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo, Hellman & Friedman, Warburg Pincus, and Madison Dearborn. The PE practice generates the largest share of firm revenue and has been the primary driver of Kirkland's growth since the early 2000s. The firm's M&A practice — anchored by PE deal flow but extending into strategic corporate M&A — has consistently ranked among the top deal-volume practices globally, though Latham & Watkins topped the Bloomberg Law M&A league tables for 2025.
Restructuring is Kirkland's second defining practice and the world's largest by volume. The firm has represented debtors and creditors across many of the largest U.S. bankruptcy cases of the modern era including Lehman Brothers, Tribune, Caesars Entertainment, Toys "R" Us, J.Crew, Hertz, and Frontier Communications. Jamie Sprayregen — the firm's most-named restructuring partner for decades — departed Kirkland in 2022 to launch a new venture, a substantial transition for the practice; it has continued to operate at scale under a deep bench of subsequent restructuring partners.
White-collar defense, regulatory, antitrust, intellectual property litigation, and capital markets round out the practice portfolio. Kirkland has expanded white-collar work materially over the past decade, building one of the larger DOJ-defense practices in BigLaw. In February 2026 the firm opened a new Nashville office anchored by four litigation partners — part of an aggressive nationwide litigation growth strategy.
Commercial position
Kirkland reached approximately $10 billion in annual gross revenue in 2025 — the first law firm ever to do so — and has been the BigLaw revenue leader for several consecutive years. The firm doubled its revenue between 2020 ($5B) and 2025 ($10B). It has scaled materially faster than any other large U.S. firm across the 2010s and 2020s, and elevated a record 151 attorneys to partner in 2024.
Kirkland set the BigLaw associate compensation market on multiple occasions across the 2010s and early 2020s — the firm's salary increases triggered industry-wide adjustments and reset compensation benchmarks across the AmLaw 100. The market-setting role on lateral partner compensation has been even more material: Kirkland's willingness to pay premium guarantees for partner laterals has reshaped lateral economics across the industry.
Communications profile
Kirkland's institutional communications posture is notably quieter than competitors of comparable scale. The firm operates a measured press cadence: deal announcements through trade press, restructuring filings through bankruptcy-court-of-record press releases, occasional partner-level commentary in legal trade publications, minimal mass-market consumer press, no celebrity-lawyer public-relations program. The firm does not chase the same legal-press cycle that Skadden or Latham have operated historically.
The communications strategy reflects the practice mix. PE clients value confidentiality; restructuring clients value process discipline; the firm's brand position has been built around "the lawyers the sophisticated parties retain" rather than around mass-market visibility. The communications posture is intentional and operationally appropriate for the client base.
The firm's lateral partner press cycles — announcements of major partner hires from other firms — generate the most-consistent earned-media coverage. The American Lawyer, Law360, Above the Law, Bloomberg Law, and Reuters Legal Industry trade press all cover Kirkland lateral cycles at meaningful cadence. Each high-profile lateral becomes its own brand-positioning artifact.
AI retrieval position
Kirkland is dominant in AI engine retrieval for "largest law firm," "biggest law firm," "highest revenue law firm," "law firm with most lawyers," and adjacent scale-and-revenue prompts. The firm also surfaces strongly in "best private equity law firm," "top restructuring law firm," and "best bankruptcy law firm" answers across all five major engines.
The firm's AI retrieval position is somewhat softer in "best law firm for [specific premium practice]" prompts where competitors with longer prestige histories (Wachtell for M&A, Cravath for M&A and finance) retain stronger retrieval-anchor depth. This is a function of editorial history rather than current performance — Kirkland's scale and revenue position have not yet fully translated into prestige-tier retrieval depth.
Frequently asked questions
What is the largest law firm in the world? Kirkland & Ellis, by revenue — the first firm ever to reach $10 billion in annual gross revenue, hitting the milestone in 2025.
Where is Kirkland & Ellis headquartered? Chicago, Illinois — with 21 offices globally including major presences in New York, Washington D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Nashville, Munich, London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
How many lawyers does Kirkland have? Approximately 3,500 lawyers globally as of 2026, with substantial annual lateral hiring and law-school recruiting volume.
What is Kirkland & Ellis known for? Private equity (the firm represents the majority of major U.S. PE sponsors), restructuring (the largest practice in the world by volume), M&A, and white-collar defense. The firm is also known for market-setting associate compensation increases and premium lateral partner guarantees.
Who runs Kirkland & Ellis? Jon A. Ballis has served as Chairman of the Executive Committee since 2020. The firm operates through an executive committee structure rather than a single managing partner.
Who founded Kirkland & Ellis? Stuart G. Shepard and Robert R. McCormick formed the partnership in 1909 in Chicago. Weymouth Kirkland and Howard Ellis joined in 1915 and the firm took their names.
